In turbines, particularly steam turbines, attachment between the plurality of buckets and the rotor wheel is typically accomplished using radial entry bucket dovetail fingers and radial fingers about the margins of the rotor wheel. For example, the finger dovetails on the buckets include a plurality of axially spaced fingers having sections which decrease in thickness in a radial inward direction for reception in slots defined between axially adjacent radially outwardly projecting fingers having sections which decrease in thicknesses in a radial outward direction about the margin of the rotor wheel. Axially extending pins secure the fingers of the wheel and bucket to one another. Single radius fillets are conventionally provided in the wheel fingers at the transitions between the sections of different thicknesses. Similar fillets have been used at the bottom of the finger slots in the wheel.
In many steam turbine applications, the finger dovetails operate in an environment that is conducive to stress corrosion cracking (SCC). SCC is accelerated by the stress levels that are present in the wheel transition fillets and slot bottoms. These stresses are normally acceptable. However in steam turbines having contaminated steam, cracks can initiate and if left undetected, may grow to a depth that will cause failure of the wheel fingers. Experience has shown that wheel dovetail fingers crack while bucket dovetails typically do not crack. This is because the materials used for the rotors are much less resistant to SCC than are the materials used for the buckets. For example, NiCrMoV and similar low alloy steels are typically used in rotors whereas 12 Cr steels are typically used for buckets as those materials afford an optimum combination of properties available for overall low pressure design. Typically a single radius at the wheel transition fillets and slot bottom have been used and these have experienced SCC cracking in the field. Accordingly, there is a need to provide an effective means of avoiding SCC in wheel dovetails which is compatible with existing steam paths, does not affect bucket dovetail geometry and will reduce the stress concentration.